Does this sound familiar. I'm really stressed that it will.

Yep. All the time. As long as you’re being honest, writing the kind of stories you love, questions of “good” are relative. Make it as good as you know how, adding and omitting what you need to make the vision live. I think there is a difference between “this type of story has been done before” and “this plot, arc, and other elements are so similar to another published story it might be considered a ripoff.” You might, in my opinion, be better off asking “how can I make this story unique to me? How can I spin this familiar trope?”

Don’t let the voices keep you from work.

The Second Moon said:

You know that little voice in the back of authors' heads that say things like, "you're not good enough" or "don't even try"? Well, my voice is telling me that my series has already been done before. I know AW probably gets threads started like this all the time, but I just need to to know. I'm so stressed that this has been done before.

Does this sound familiar to you?

My short stories are about an inventor, Thomas, who is afraid to love, because he doesn't want to break anyone's heart and his 12-year old assistant, Barney who lives with him. The basically go on all sorts of adventures using Thomas' crazy, impossible inventions. Thomas is best described as smart, but scared to get close. Barney wants to fit in with the kids in his class and wants Thomas to know how much he cares for him. (Barney can also turn into a alligator-creature by will and sometimes under extreme anger or stress.)

By the way, I want to call the series Thomas and Barney but I'm afraid it'll stir up images of cartoon trains and a purple dinosaur.

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The general setup of inventor-and-apprentice-and-adventures is so generic (in a good way) that this wouldn't invite comparison to anything I could think of. Sounds like a potentially fun series.

As for titles, how about Uncle Thomas and the Barneygator? (Doesn't have to be the apprentice's real uncle; "Uncle" can be used as a term of endearment.)

Rick and Morty came to mind.

But Star Wars, A New Hope is essentially the same story as The Matix, what's different is the setting and characters. No movie goer would ever say that Star Wars, A New Hope is the same as The Matrix.

The Second Moon said:

Thanks for your comments Fortz and Brightdreamer, though I only have the tiniest guess on what Rick and Morty is.

On a different note, If I am writing form Barney's POV should I refer to Thomas as Mr. Thomas or just Thomas? It's in 3rd person

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You refer to him as the POV character thinks of him, be that Mr. Thomas or Thomas or Tommy-Tom or Old Tommy or Throckmorton Noodlehead the Third.

That does not sound familiar and the alligator transformation is so unique that other comparisons are likely to fall flat.

It sounds a lot like Rick and Morty. And Back to the Future (which is what R/M is based off, I think)


The other thing, that I hate to bring up but you may have to address, that the age gap between the characters, and the "adventures together/learning to love" may be misconstrued for "adult grooming child for sexual abuse".

Editors acquiring middle grade material will be wary of this, and obviously adult-fiction acquirers might find the concepts a little twee. The Rick and Morty folks get away with it because it's humour and satire. May be worth throwing in a third character to even out the problematic set-up. (Like his mum?)

Huh, I thought I responded to this thread the other day... I must have closed the window without hitting "post."

With the caretaker/foster parent element between the two, the first thing I actually thought of was the old sitcom "Punky Brewster." Punky is an orphan who sneaks into an empty apartment and takes up residence, only to be discovered by a grumpy older man named Henry. He ultimately wins custody of her and the series proceeds in classic cutesy slice-of-life fashion (well... mostly. That show took some dark turns).

Having adored the show as a child, and watched a few episodes as an adult for the sake of nostalgia, I present the following for consideration.

1) As a kid, I didn't think about the possibility of ick at all. I loved the character of Henry because Punky loved him, and I 100% rooted for them to stay together.

2) While the kids watching may not have noticed anything amiss, I'm sure the parents did. The show creators clearly recognized the same potential for "ick" as stated here, and addressed head-on the idea that the authorities had reservations about Henry's suitibility as a foster parent.

Henry reports finding Punky (as any responsible adult would do) and she's actually taken away for a while before Henry gains the trust and support of the social workers and is ultimately awarded custody.

3) While they DO state that Henry might not be a suitable foster-parent, they never outright mention the possibility of impropriety (it being a family show and all). Instead, they framed it so that the opposition to letting Punky stay with Henry was primarily due to his advanced age and concerns he might not be physically up to the task of caring for a young child.

4) Punky was never isolated. They live in an apartment complex and have a female neighbor with a daughter Punky's age (the two become best friends). There are also a lot of episodes about her friends at school.

5) The show is something of an object lesson in how difficult it can be to balance addressing adult concepts and still keep kids' interest. Child-me loved the earlier episodes, but later in the series, Henry's health starts to fail and the series focus turned from cute kids adventures to worrying about whether Punky would be able to stay with him after all. I distinctly remember making the decision to stop watching because the show was "getting too sad." (However, I was a good bit younger than your target audience).

Just some food for thought.

Calling the series, Thomas and Barney will most likely start the recollection for people, and the idea for the story is definitely not over done, the life of an inventor or even scientist was a crazy adventure. People love to read about this type of life, things can be overdone but this is definitely not over that line.

Tazlima said:

Huh, I thought I responded to this thread the other day... I must have closed the window without hitting "post."

With the caretaker/foster parent element between the two, the first thing I actually thought of was the old sitcom "Punky Brewster." Punky is an orphan who sneaks into an empty apartment and takes up residence, only to be discovered by a grumpy older man named Henry. He ultimately wins custody of her and the series proceeds in classic cutesy slice-of-life fashion (well... mostly. That show took some dark turns).

Just some food for thought.

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Yes, they balanced it a lot with there being another adult female character (the Grandmother) and the younger female friend. It was definitely a purposeful narrative addition like the one I suggested above - there was another adult around, and another child to balance it out.

Rick and Morty, Back to the Future, Mr. Peabody and Sherman. It's practically a genre, so it doesn't count as ripping off. The trope even has an inversion: Inspector Gadget and Penny, where the child is the genius.

What you're talking about sounds like it has a really different vibe than Rick and Morty. More of a cute style is how I imagine it. Barney puffing up and turning into an alligator like a puffer fish when startled.